Abstract: In order to improve the copper recovery rate of a sulfide ore in Gejiu，Yunnan Province， the process mineralogy，preferential flotation test and production practice of single copper sulfide ore are carried out in view of the problems of many start-up equipment and inconvenient operation and manage‐ ment in the mixed flotation of the plant.The test results show that under the conditions of grinding fineness of -0.074 mm 80%，lime dosage of 1 500 g/t，roughing + scavenging 1 + scavenging 2 collector butyl sodium xanthate + ethyl sodium xanthate and foaming agent 2# oil dosage of（80+40+20）g/t and（30+15+10）g/t，re‐ spectively，the copper concentrate with copper grade of 20.42% and copper recovery of 93.10% is obtained by one roughing，one cleaning and two scavenging preferential flotation process.The industrial test results show that the copper grade obtained by preferential flotation decreases by 0.74 percentage points and the copper recovery rate increases by 3.23 percentage points compared with the mixed flotation from January to March and the preferential flotation index from April to December.Preferential flotation simplifies the pro‐ cess flow，reduces the operation and management costs，and improves the overall operating efficiency. From April to December，the cumulative economic benefits are 10.014 06 million yuan.

Key words: single copper sulfide ore, process mineralogy, mixed flotation, preferential flotation, pro‐ cess optimization